Bengaluru: A simple analysis of the performance of nearly 100 Muslim schools in Bengaluru and some other cities in Karnataka reveals that most privately managed institutions are doing well while the ones under known—though not reputed educational bodies—are failing to measure up to the expectation. Bengaluru has been a major hub of Muslim managed schools. According to a rough estimate, the city has as many as 400 high schools run by the community. However, not all the students studying there necessarily belong to the Muslim community. Some of the schools have as many as 75% students from other communities. Same is the situation with teachers who come from diverse faith backgrounds. Since most high schools in the city are English medium, it is a case of laissez faire where people look at the academic standard of the school and care less about who runs the institution while enrolling their kids.
However it is fair to assume that a majority of Muslim children attend the community-managed schools. It is from this perspective that we take a look at their performance and identify the gaps where some course correction may yield better results. A cursory glance at the data reveals that schools under bodies such as Central Muslim Association, Al-Ameen Educational Society, Crescent School in Basavanagudi, Muslim Orphanage and Quwathul Islam Group of Institutions are not faring well. Some of these schools are pretty old institutions and are known for their contribution to advancement of education in the past. These seem to have fallen out of favour for students from well-heeled families. They have to now subsist on students from slums and underprivileged sections. Being Government-aided institutions, they still employ Government teachers who are not sufficiently motivated to handle children from less-educated homes.

Educational Entrepreneurship
Meanwhile the city has witnessed a massive growth in population with around 60% of its people having taken up the residence in the city during the last 25 years. Diverse linguistic profile of the people has automatically helped English to be the consensus choice for medium of instructions. And it is precisely English medium that has led to commercialization of school education. Advent of the IT industry too has spurred this boom. Consequently, even the very ordinary folk prefer sending their kids to an English school. Most of these schools are therefore the result of the entrepreneurship in education, rather than any genuine concern for promoting education.

Not Rising
But the performance of the older and established institutions such as Central Muslim Association (CMA) must worry us as they operate out of the assets in which the people of the community invested in the past. They are headed by persons with reputed credentials. They are supposed to turn out better products. Yet their performance does not seem to be rising from the nadir it touched. Take for example, the Muslim Orphanage Girls High School which can boast of very good infrastructure, which has just about 46% passes this year. The three schools under the Central Muslim Association (CMA) are stuck around 70% and below passes. The schools under Bismillah Education Trust (BET) and Silicon City Public School in Indiranagar, being community-managed institutions and are of recent origin, are doing better than the CMA and the Orphanage. Unfortunately, the schools under the Anjuman Islam in Hubballi (previously Hubli) too have slipped in performance this year. The reasons could not be ascertained.

Poor Input
One possible explanation why these institutions perform poorly is that their input is poor in quality. Those not being able to pay higher fee only get enrolled there. Moreover, they do not restrict enrolment with any entry level test. And it also may be the case that these kids will be the first generation learners. Some of these schools being government-aided, have government teachers on rolls, whose remunerations are not linked to performance. This being the crux, one needs to look for measures to pull them out of the mess they are in. This is essential as a community gets known due to its institutions that work with a social vision, not by the commercial institutions.

Urdu High Schools
Incidentally, we could learn that the City of Bengaluru now has at least three Government Urdu High Schools. Earlier, the Urdu high schools could be found only in Hyderabad-Karnataka and Bombay-Karnataka region. As is learnt, these have come up due to upgradation of existing Government Urdu higher primary schools. Though their performance is nothing to write home about, they need the community’s attention as it is here that hoi polloi can access free education.
The data collected from over 100 schools is being presented for the readers’ consideration:

Abbreviations: Dist. – Distinction (Over 85% marks are considered distinction.); NA- Not available; Cl- Class.
(Note: This is by no means a survey of the entire lot of Muslim schools in Bengaluru and the State of Karnataka. Only schools that were readily accessible through telephone were covered. Nearly a hundred schools set up by the individuals from the Muslim community and being run mainly for the commercial purpose, have been left out. Similarly, there are ample number of schools that are not identifiable by their names for the community orientation. They too could not be covered.)